NEW YORK – Volvo Cars of North America will promote its V8 version of the XC90 SUV with a “risky” adventure: A flight into space aboard SpaceShipOne, Burt Rutan’s Ansari X-Prize-winning suborbital spacecraft.

In a 30-second spot, via Euro RSCG Worldwide, New York, to air during the Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb.6, Volvo will compare the XC90 V8 to a rocket blasting into space. At the commercial’s end, the astronaut removes his helmet, is none other than Virgin Group chairman Sir Richard Branson, as the ship will be branded Virgin Galactic, with actual takeoffs scheduled for 2007.

Volvo touts Boldlygo.com in the ad, a site that allows visitors to sign up for a chance to be the first Virgin Galactic passenger; the winner will be named at the New York International Auto Show this March. The flight package also includes three days of pre-flight training is $200,000, per Volvo.

“We wanted to create an innovative campaign hook to maximize interest beyond the 30-second commercial,” Vic Doolan, president and CEO of Volvo Cars of North America, said in a statement. “There are few other opportunities that are as innovative and intriguing as going into space.”

Posted By Cathleen Manville @ 12:00 am GMT Comments (0)

So: what do you think? Is this going to be the first in a long line of companies using space exploration to popularize their products (and thus popularizing space exploration in the process), or is it going to be the last we see of the space exploration field outside of small, highly-motivated groups?

I dont know about the shape of great things to come. Richard Branson normally takes any chance he can get to publicise any of his companies and this is no exception, he and others will no doubt be appearing in various adds, articles and anything else short of dressing up as aliens on prime time TV (and its even possible he would do this) over the next couple of years.

What would be more interesting would be some details of how things are progressing and what can be expected for your money on the virgin galactic website which doesn't appear to have been updated much since SSO won the X-prize.

_________________A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Advertising and brand promotion is a good market for the space community. It's kept the lights on at JPA for a long time now. However, it is a very tough and competitive business.
Branson has done us all a service by the attention he's brought to the industry. He's very good, and he's ahead, but I think I'm better. We'll see what the market says. Off to the races...

Superbowl? WTF? As nobody on earth actually watches it or cares about it, I can't imagine it will change the world. Whats the point of selling space to the one country that is already addicted? Now if they could enthuse enough people in Engalnd or Europe to demand government spending on that scale in space, that would be impressive and worthwhile.

P.S. When you have finished watching five hundred heavily padded nancy boys jogging around in five second bursts, switch over to the 6 nations and watch a real game.

Haha nice post Luke... I dont particularaly care for football either, but unfortunately, our country isnt as hooked on space as one might think. Most of the people I talk to still haven't even heard of the x-prize, so maybe volvo will do some good...

yeah i like real football better than our crappy american version, probably because i'm better at it, but the american version is a lot more of a strategy game than the real version, where it seems that skill makes more difference than anything.

Why would we want to encourage more government spending? Look to your own pockets and you'll realize where the true spending potential is. The citizen spenders of the world have far, far more buying power than our governments do. Study the tourism industry and you'll see all the evidence you'll ever need.

Didn't watch it this year, mainly because I'm losing interest in the game.. and it doesn't help much that I hate one of the teams that played. However, saying that NO ONE watched it or cared about it is a tad foolish. I should know, I say such things whenever someone talks about baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, (heh) tennis, golf, rugby, "extreme sports", racing, and just about any other sport I see mentioned.. and yeah, it's pretty foolish when I say such things, too.. because if no one was interested in those sports, they wouldn't exist. Gotta get the money from somewhere, to pay the pros to play.

_________________"Floating down the sound resounds around the icy waters underground.."

Your quite right of course. It was even on telly here on ITV (all 5 hours of it!!!?). Which reminds me, totally off topic but I am curious... how long does the actual game take to play? By which I mean the time when the ball is in play, all players supposed to be are on the pitch etc. Also, how do they sustain such a large supporter base for teams which are essentially franchises which could walk away at the sniff of a better offer. Team sports here are dependant on the fanatical support of the people of a city or town and often one town will have more than one team with fans who hate each other more than outsiders!.

I believe the game itself takes about two hours. The other three are taken up by commercials.

And actually, the SuperBowl has become as much an art gallery as a sports event: the greatest minds in the television industry come together to produce ads for the most expensive spots on the planet. Some are lame (like the internet start-up ads from a few years ago), and some are classics (Mean Joe Greene [sp?], the Budweiser Clydesdales, the 1984 Apple ad). When polled, a surprising number of people say that they watch the SuperBowl for the ads, not the game.